Mellah Al-Jadid. The Jewish Quarter of Tetouan, Morocco; An Identifiable Architecture?

Abstract

Architecture and Islamic urbanism have been the subject of intense academic interest for decades, however, the Jewish neighbourhoods, which were a vital component of cities with a Muslim majority in the Maghreb, have been ignored, or have been scarcely studied. Few researches related tend to approach the study of these minority neighbourhoods as isolated units (from the point of view of exclusion and singularity), considered exceptions to the "ideal" Islamic city, without taking into account the multiple connections between the Mellah and the rest of the Medina. In this paper, an approach arises to the domestic architecture of the new district, Mellah al-Jedid, through typological analysis, trying to clarify the following issues: Has a community with 2000 years old roots been able to define itself to the point of getting an identifiable one? Can be recognized a distinctive Jewish Mellah Moroccan architecture? (c) 2016 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.